Publications by authors named "Pamela B Davis"

BackgroundMild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a heterogeneous condition with variable progression to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Identifying MCI individuals at high risk for progression typically requires cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which are costly and invasive.ObjectiveThis study aimed to develop a cost-effective approach using routinely collected clinical data to identify a subgroup of MCI individuals at high risk for AD progression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

BackgroundAlmost half of the dementia cases are preventable. Semaglutide treats several medical conditions that are risk factors for dementia.ObjectiveWe aim to investigate if semaglutide is associated with a decreased risk of dementia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Parkinson's disease (PD) is an increasingly prevalent neurologic condition for which symptomatic, but not preventative, treatment is available. Drug repurposing is an innovate drug discovery method that uncovers existing therapeutics to treat or prevent conditions for which they are not currently indicated, a method that could be applied to incurable diseases such as PD. A knowledge graph artificial intelligence prediction system was used to select potential drugs that could be used to treat or prevent PD, and amphetamine was identified as the strongest candidate.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Previous guidance for mild concussion treatment has recommended physical and cognitive rest. However, it remains unknown if patients who received treatment at different times had differential neuropsychiatric outcomes. We examined if patients who received immediate treatment less than one week after a mild concussion had a different risk for subsequent depression or anxiety compared with those who received delayed treatment greater than one week after the event, stratified by age groups.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Importance: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is associated with hospitalization and death among older adults. Characterizing the safety and effectiveness of recently introduced vaccines against RSV is critical.

Objective: To assess the safety and effectiveness of vaccines against RSV and the major adverse events among patients aged 60 years or older during the 2023-2024 RSV season.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Electronic health records (EHRs), though they are maintained and utilized for clinical and billing purposes, may provide a wealth of information for research. Currently, sources are available that offer insight into the health histories of well over a quarter of a billion people. Their use, however, is fraught with hazards, including introduction or reinforcement of biases, clarity of disease definitions, protection of patient privacy, definitions of covariates or confounders, accuracy of medication usage compared with prescriptions, the need to introduce other data sources such as vaccination or death records and the ensuing potential for inaccuracy, duplicative records, and understanding and interpreting the outcomes of data queries.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Recent research suggests that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may reduce mortality in COVID-19 patients; however, research into their benefits for elderly Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients remains limited.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between SSRIs therapy and the mortality risk after COVID-19 infection in elderly patients with and without AD.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study leveraged a large database containing over 100 million electronic health records in the US from the TriNetX platform to compare the hazard rates of mortality after COVID-19 infection in elderly AD patients prescribed SSRIs versus propensity-score matched individuals prescribed other antidepressants.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Emerging preclinical evidence suggests that semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity, protects against neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation. However, real-world evidence for its ability to protect against Alzheimer's disease (AD) is lacking.

Methods: We conducted emulation target trials based on a nationwide database of electronic health records (EHRs) of 116 million US patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Diagnoses of new-onset type 2 diabetes (T2D) in children after COVID-19 infection were studied to see if they were more common than after other respiratory infections.
  • The study analyzed health records of over 600,000 pediatric patients aged 10-19, revealing a significant increase in T2D diagnoses within six months post-COVID-19 compared to those with other respiratory infections.
  • Specifically, the risk ratios (RR) showed that children infected with COVID-19 had a heightened risk of T2D, particularly noticeable in those with overweight/obesity and those who were hospitalized.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Reports of reduced desire to smoke in patients treated with semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) medication for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity, have raised interest about its potential benefit for tobacco use disorders (TUDs).

Objective: To examine the association of semaglutide with TUD-related health care measures in patients with comorbid T2DM and TUD.

Design: Emulation target trial based on a nationwide population-based database of patient electronic health records.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Alcohol use disorders are among the top causes of the global burden of disease, yet therapeutic interventions are limited. Reduced desire to drink in patients treated with semaglutide has raised interest regarding its potential therapeutic benefits for alcohol use disorders. In this retrospective cohort study of electronic health records of 83,825 patients with obesity, we show that semaglutide compared with other anti-obesity medications is associated with a 50%-56% lower risk for both the incidence and recurrence of alcohol use disorder for a 12-month follow-up period.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cannabis is the most frequently used illicit drug in the United States with more than 45 million users of whom one-third suffer from a cannabis use disorder (CUD). Despite its high prevalence, there are currently no FDA-approved medications for CUD. Patients treated with semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) approved for treating type 2 diabetes (T2D) and for weight management have reported reduced desire to drink and smoke.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Beginning in October 2021 in the USA and elsewhere, cases of severe paediatric hepatitis of unknown aetiology were identified in young children. While the adenovirus and adenovirus-associated virus have emerged as leading aetiological suspects, we attempted to investigate a potential role for SARS-CoV-2 in the development of subsequent liver abnormalities.

Design: We conducted a study using retrospective cohorts of deidentified, aggregated data from the electronic health records of over 100 million patients contributed by US healthcare organisations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

COVID-19 is associated with increased risks for mood or anxiety disorders, but it remains uncertain how the association evolves over time or which patient groups are most affected. We conducted a retrospective cohort study using a nationwide database of electronic health records to determine the risk of depressive or anxiety disorder diagnoses after SARS-CoV-2 infection by 3-month blocks from January 2020 to April 2022. The study population comprised 822,756 patients (51.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in January 2023 a potential connection between administration of the Pfizer novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) bivalent vaccine booster and ischemic stroke (IS). A retrospective cohort study was conducted to compare the hazard of IS in patients aged 65 years and over administered the Pfizer bivalent booster versus those administered the Pfizer/Moderna monovalent or Moderna bivalent boosters. De-identified patient electronic health data were collected from TriNetX, a cloud-based analytics platform that includes data from over 90 million unique patients in the United States.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: The long-term time trend and seasonality variations of first-time medically attended respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections among young children are unknown. We aim to examine the time trend of medically attended first-time RSV infections among young children in the USA from January 2010 through January 2023.

Design: This is a population-based cohort study using electronic health records (EHRs).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To investigate whether COVID-19 infection was associated with increased risk for incident respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections and associated diseases among young children that might have contributed to the 2022 surge of severe paediatric RSV cases in the USA.

Design: This is a retrospective population-based cohort study. Five outcomes were examined, including overall RSV infection, positive lab test-confirmed RSV infection, clinically diagnosed RSV diseases, RSV-associated bronchiolitis and unspecified bronchiolitis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Beginning in October 2021 in the US and elsewhere, cases of severe pediatric hepatitis of unknown etiology were identified in young children. While the adenovirus and adenovirus-associated virus have emerged as leading etiologic suspects, we attempted to investigate a potential role for SARS-CoV-2 in the development of subsequent liver abnormalities.

Design: We conducted a study utilizing retrospective cohorts of de-identified, aggregated data from the electronic health records of over 100 million patients contributed by US health care organizations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Cocaine use disorder (CUD) is a major public health concern and often occurs alongside depression, but there are currently no FDA-approved medications specifically for CUD.
  • A study of over 161,000 patients found that the antidepressant bupropion significantly increases rates of remission from CUD compared to other antidepressants and is particularly effective in those with nicotine dependence.
  • Bupropion works through interactions with specific genes linked to CUD and affects related biological pathways, suggesting it may serve as a viable treatment option for individuals with both CUD and depression or nicotine dependence.*
View Article and Find Full Text PDF